Foldable Tiny House Triples in Size on Location, Boasts 'Limitless Relocation'

Brette Hause is a Latvian builder of tiny homes that are unlike any other tiny home out there. The difference goes beyond the fact that they're not built on trailers, too: Brette Haus tinies are a cross between prefabs and tinies, so they're folding units that you can place on whatever foundation you want. In the case of the unit shown in the video below, that's a railway track, so it's still essentially mobile, albeit the range is limited.

Brette Haus introduced its first model in 2019, launching in the following years an entire range of tinies, with each model addressing a different need. The last time we covered them, they had three models, each with several options for size, but all three based on the same concept "pop-up tiny."

Today, they've ditched those three, replacing them with different ones – Tiny D, Compact, Rustic, and A-Frame DIY – but only one is foldable. That would be the Rustic model, which is now offered in two size variations. Arguably the most famous Rustic pop-up tiny is the one they set up in a tiny house community in Germany back in 2021. It's the same one presented in the video at the bottom of the page, and it sits on a long section of railway tracks.

The Rustic ships on a flatbed trailer as a very compact cube. In the case of this one, the livable surface is 27 square meters (290.6 square feet), with a height of 4.9 meters (16 feet) and a weight of 8,500 kg (18,739 lbs). Once at its destination, the home unfolds nearly three times its size, with a roof section and a lateral section coming out of the main structure.

At the end of the assembly process, which takes no more than three hours, including hookups to the mains but not the actual land prep, you get a house that lives surprisingly large and is nearly ready to move into. Brette Haus handles all the details regarding delivery and assembly, and even provides guidance and assistance with furnishing it, with a curated selection of Ikea pieces.

Granted, the Rustic is not as homey-looking as a trailer-based tiny house, but it will work wonders if you're a fan of Scandinavian styling. Fitting all the creature comforts in such a compact footprint isn't possible, so minimalist styling is the only option that will work.

The fixed part of the home includes the kitchen and the bathroom. When the home arrives on site, they're furnished with all the basics, including a sink, a water heater, and a fridge in the kitchen, as well as a toilet, a large shower, and a sink in the bathroom. Also part of the fixed section of the home is the wooden ladder that leads up to the sleeping loft.

The first section that slides out is the dining room slash living space, which will have to be furnished after installation. The second one is the loft, which would serve as bedroom.

Brette Haus makes all their units out of recycled materials and responsibly sourced wood, and they boast that every unit has a decreased carbon footprint during construction as well. They guarantee 100 cycles of folding and unfolding the home, boasting "endless relocation" possibilities. If we're being accurate, you can only relocate the home 100 times, but the hyperbole makes sense when the term of comparison is a brick-and-mortar home that can't be relocated at all.

The Rustic is "deurbanized with comfort," weatherproof and insulated, fire- and quake-resistant, and "externally more attractive" because you can customize it to a certain extent, the builder says. Applicability extends beyond downsizers looking to reduce their expenses or carbon footprint: the Rustic can also serve as disaster shelter, temporary residence, and rental unit.

The Rustic on tracks, for example, is a rental unit. Oliver Victor, who founded the tiny living community, says that it's the biggest house they have on site, though he wouldn't have been able to guess when he bought it. A Brette Haus tiny, it would seem, has the ability to surprise even a tiny house connoisseur.

When we covered the then-current lineup of tinies from Brette Haus in 2020, prices ranged between €18,000 and €33,750, or approximately $18,900 and $35,300 at the current exchange rate. That was well before the boom of tiny houses and inflated prices, but it still made them incredibly affordable by comparison.

That said, pricing today for Brette Haus models is only available on request. We reached out to the builder for more details and we'll update the story when and if we hear back.